Talibans Propaganda Effort in Video of Freed U.S. Soldier

It seems that the Taliban who handed over Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to the U.S. Special Forces team in the prisoner exchange in Afghanistan were disapointed the Americans “did not stop to talk or exchange polite greetings.”

But once on the ground, the Americans, to the dismay of the Taliban, proved uninterested in any pomp. They rushed through the encounter and did not stop to talk or exchange polite greetings, as is customary in Afghanistan, even during hostage releases. The narrator complained that they had managed to shake hands with only two of the Americans, and that one of them had hastily shoved his left hand forward, considered a particularly rude gesture in Afghanistan.

We wanted to convey some messages to them via the interpreter, but they didn’t spend much time with us,” a Taliban fighter said on the video, according to the Times, speculating that perhaps the Americans were too frightened to linger. “They even didn’t let us shake hands with the soldier and say goodbye, and they behaved in a very simple way.